Volume 3, Issue 1 (2011) Issue 3, Spring 2011
Message from the Dean
Thank you for your interest in Quadrivium, a publication that reflects the diversity of scholarship and creative talent among the faculty and graduate students at the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences.
Faculty members are generative in their scholarship, express themselves creatively, and engage in the analysis and critique of the works of others. These contributions to the larger community of knowledge are reflected in the college's academic and cultural programming, course curricula, and classroom discussions. The cycle of exploration, analysis, inspiration, creation, and collaboration ensures that our students are exposed to innovative ideas within and beyond their fields of study.
Congratulations to all of the writers, scholars, and artists featured here.
I would also like to acknowledge Quadrivium editors Eric Mason and Andrea Shaw. Their efforts have solidified the journal's standing within the college as a showcase for quality work from a variety of disciplines and genres.
I hope you enjoy every issue. Your feedback is welcome.
Sincerely,
Don Rosenblum, Ph.D.
Dean, Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences
Articles
Vagueness and Fuzzy Logic
Darren Hibbs
Beat Those Sleepy Slackers!: Color-Blind Racism in World of Warcraft’s Valley of Trials
Tara Spiecker
Why Democracy Needs the Humanities
Ben Mulvey
Exploring Identity Through Genetic and Genealogical Research: Development of a Collaborative Course Between Humanities and Biology
James Doan and Emily F. Schmitt Lavin
Photo Essay
Light and Shadow
Joshua Feingold
Artwork
Dark Matter Series
Barbara Ryan
Fiction
The Snow Angel
Christine Jackson
Cover Image:
Detail of "Macula” by Barbara Ryan
"Macula" | Dark Matter Series | Artist Statement
by Barbara Ryan
“Macula” 2009, Walnut Ink on Polypropylene (Private Collection) Macula image
We are made up of tiny things that expand and decay; we are drifting on a planet, within a galaxy, floating in a corner of a universe which might be part of a series of universes.
“Macula,” the first work of the Dark Matter Series , is titled after the part of the eye responsible for visual and color perception. When I was told I had several signs of glaucoma, a hereditary, vision-stealing eye disease, I created the drawing to express, concretize and objectify the one true thing that is so essential to who I am and what I do as an artist-my vision. “Macula” set the stage for the presentation of the rest of the work in the series. It is solitary and vulnerable to the sterile space it floats in, and it searches for reason in an unreasonable and indefinite world.
